Thanks to the Internet, nonprofits can spread awareness and drive donations much easier than before. Here is why the most streamlined nonprofits rely on their websites to connect their potential donors, the press, and volunteers. To provide seamless and secure operating, however, those websites need to be hosted reliably. If large businesses and even startups can afford top-dollar hosting services, the budget of a nonprofit is strictly limited. And yet, if your organization doesn’t expect any profit from its activity, you shouldn’t settle for a less-than-ideal website hosting solution.
Today the market is full of various options, not all of which are worth your time. Some of the cheapest hosts lack the essential security features necessary to accept donations while others require expert skills in building and running a website whether commercial or nonprofit.
Anyway, the best website hosting providers ensure great service with reliable performance and affordable plans. Here we have reviewed most of them to narrow down the circle and help you make the right choice. Our research was based on such features as affordability, security, site building software, reliability, customer support, and a range of suggested features. As a result, we chose only those services which offer the best value for your money.
When you pick the solution that perfectly fits your project requirements, you can host your nonprofit website on a budget yet without compromising on quality.
List of the Best Web Hosts for Non-Profits:
| 1. HostGator | 5. Scala Hosting | 9. KnownHost |
| 2. Bluehost | 6. GreenGeeks | 10. DreamHost |
| 3. Web.com | 7. Domain.com | 11. WebHostingPad |
| 4. IONOS | 8. SiteGround |
1. HostGator – Best for Nonprofit Organizations Looking to Scale
| Product Name: | Hostgator |
| Official Website: | hostgator.com |
| Launched: | 2002 |
| Websites managed: | 2,273,368 |
| Test Plan: | No |
| Cheapest Plan: | $2.75/month |
| Refund: | 45 days |
Hostgator – is an ideal option for large-scale campaigns and rapid growth. It’s a reliable company with many benefits including a 99.99% uptime guarantee, a broad range of plans in case you want to upgrade yours, free site migration, unlimited bandwidth, free domain registration for one year, as well as a simple yet highly functional website building platform. However, the company lacks automatic backups and a Windows Server hosting option which serve as the basic downsides of the provider.
If you need a way to expand the online footprint of your nonprofit organization without emptying your wallet, HostGator’s feature-rich web hosting packages starting at $2.75 per month can be the best solution. If your organization has no site yet, you will like the intuitive Weebly site-building software with a drag-and-drop editing tool and tons of templates to build a professional-looking website with no coding knowledge.
The company’s plans involve unlimited SSD storage and bandwidth, i.e. you face no limits on traffic and storage even when using a shared hosting plan. Thanks to the eCommerce features of HostGator hosting plans, nonprofit organizations can sell merchandise and accept donations effectively and in an organized way. Furthermore, marketing with HostGator is straightforward thanks to $100 Google AdWords credit and $100 in Yahoo! and paid Bing ads.
The starting Hatchling plan, priced at $2.75 includes unmetered bandwidth, a free SSL certificate, 1-click WordPress installs, and free domain registration for one year. At such a low price per month, nonprofits can save up significantly in the long run.
2. Bluehost – Best WordPress Hosting Provider for Nonprofits
| Product Name: | Bluehost |
| Official Website: | bluehost.com |
| Launched: | 2003 |
| Websites Powered: | 4,584,636 |
| Test Plan: | No |
| Cheapest Plan: | $2.95/month |
| Refund: | 30 days |
Bluehost provides some of the best performance in the market at competitive rates. This is a perfect choice for hosting nonprofits especially if they power their sites through WordPress. You see, the provider has been endorsed by the team of WordPress.org and offers one-click WP installs.
If we look at the company’s overall benefits, we’ve got to mention the free Weebly website-building platform featuring numerous eCommerce extensions (great to receive donations and sell merchandise), Cloudflare CDN, 1-click installs, a simple cPanel, a high uptime guarantee, a free SSL encryption, free website transfer, and unmetered bandwidth. Not to neglect the downsides you may possibly face, we have to state the company doesn’t offer cloud hosting.
At the price of only $2.95 per month, the Basic plan can host one website and provide it with unlimited bandwidth, 50GB of storage, and a free domain for a whole year. Apparently, it’s perfect for starting any project especially if it’s a nonprofit organization. Bluehost has made it possible to move up the price tiers and get way more benefits while having to pay only a difference of a few dollars. By acquiring a better plan, you get unlimited sites, storage, domains, and email accounts.
Managing a website with Bluehost is highly straightforward. Thanks to the cPanel interface of the provider, the centralized management of all the site aspects becomes possible.
Furthermore, the hosting provider deals well with resource protection. It creates daily backups of all your accounts, thus giving you a chance to restore your sites and data in case of an unpredicted website collapse.
Bluehost minimizes any risks of downtime or waning performance by identifying websites on shared servers with the use of massive accounts of resources that get moved elsewhere temporarily.
3. Web.com – Best Robust Hosting to Receive Donations Seamlessly
| Product Name: | Web.com |
| Official Website: | web.com |
| Launched: | 1999 |
| Websites managed: | 189,124 |
| Test Plan: | No |
| Cheapest Plan: | $5.95/month |
| Refund: | 30 days |
Web.com has been delivering robust website hosting services since its foundation in 1999. It’s a one-stop source for anything website-related. And since nonprofits have tight budgets, the discounted plans by Web.com will be of great help to any nonprofit organization that searches for affordable yet enterprise-level website hosting. Besides the low pricing policy, the company stands for its awe-inspiring marketing and tech services such as website promotion, eCommerce, WP installs, SEO, lead generation, and social media management.
The basic drawbacks of using Web.com services, meanwhile, involve possible difficulties in transferring a website if you already have one created and hosted elsewhere. The absence of Windows hosting may serve as another downside, too.
Web.com is targeted at startups and nonprofits that might need technical assistance yet it isn’t deprived of development tools such as Drupal, Project Management Apps, Joomla, WP CMS, Chat Functionality, and Message Boards.
The performance of the provided services is reliable with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. And if you intend to gain donations, the advertising, and marketing services available at Web.com will greatly assist in the mission through effective search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, and pro-business directories.
Website hosting at Web.com starts at $5.95 per month with such features as 300GB disk space, unmetered data transfer, 100 multi-user mailboxes, 25 FTP accounts, and domain registration for one year. This way small businesses get websites with basic content with limited multimedia. If you need a website with dynamic content, you’d better consider Professional hosting priced at $7.95 per month. It offers even better features while the Premium hosting package is the most powerful one by web.com. At the discounted price of $9.95, it provides the user with FTP accounts, data transfer, and disk space of unlimited quantity, as well as 1,000 multi-user mailboxes and 1-year domain registration. Mind that the mentioned prices are only for the first month of usage and are subject to change after the trial period is over.
4. IONOS – Your Perfect Nonprofit Storefront Organizer
| Product Name: | IONOS |
| Official Website: | ionos.com |
| Launched: | 1988 |
| Websites managed: | 349,326 |
| Test Plan: | No |
| Cheapest Plan: | $1/mo |
| Refund: | 30 days |
IONOS by 1&1 offers hosting services at some of the most affordable prices in the market. However, this shouldn’t fool you since the company provides a complete suite of powerful tools to help you deliver your nonprofit’s message online. Starting at just $0.50 per month, the user is provided with 100GB SSD space, 5 email accounts, 10 MariaDB databases, site scan malware protection, a free domain for 1 year, and a free SSL certificate. Aside from this, the host catches the eye for its Windows and Linux servers, fabulous uptime guarantee, and a robust site-building platform with essential eCommerce tools (unmetered bandwidth, free SSL encrypt, multiple plugins, and extensions) to scale up your marketing and donations.
IONOS offers significantly discounted prices to help nonprofits to get on their feet. However, those are only introductory costs while the actual ones are more expensive after the 1-year subscription term is over. The Essential plan will turn to $4/mo, the recommended Business tier will cost $8/mo instead of the introductory $1/mo, while the price for the most powerful Unlimited plan will be $16/mo and not $8/mo. If the nonprofit organization you run is a big one, you’d better consider the Unlimited plan which is targeted at demanding projects with multiple sites.
In case you aim at selling merchandise or you simply want to accept donations, INONOS suggests setting up an online storefront through a 1-click install function. It will offer you multiple payment options (PayPal, credit cards, Stripe, etc.) so that you can handle the payments safely.
5. Scala Hosting – Reputable Cloud and Website Hosting Provider
| Product name: | Scala Hosting |
| Official Website: | scalahosting.com |
| Launched: | 2007 |
| Websites Managed: | Over 700,000 |
| Test Plan: | No |
| Cheapest Plan: | $2.95/mo |
| Refund: | Anytime |
Scala Hosting is a reputable cloud and website hosting provider, which occupies one of the leading positions in the rating of the best hosting companies in Europe and the USA. They have gained user popularity due to the broad range of features, focus on the needs of diverse user categories, affordability, scalability and high end performance.
The company has been in business for over 15 years, offering several types of hosting solutions to come up to versatile needs of their subscribers. It is possible to opt for shared, dedicated and VPS hosting here as well as for reseller plans, app hosting, business email hosting etc.
One of the indisputable advantages of the service is its user- and developer-friendly SPanel that acts as an alternative to cPanel. With its built-in FTP tools and handy file manager, users get an opportunity to upload databases, domains, emails, websites and other entities much quicker and with minimum hassle.
Other advantages of the hosting provider include high end performance (fast website load time, high uptime rates, quick server response etc.), White Label hosting, opportunity of one-click WordPress installation, domain registration, SSL Certificate connection, rich choice of integrated hosting-related resources, automated backups, SEO tool etc.
As to the demerits, they are not numerous, but they exist. As opposed to its multiple competitors, Scala Hosting does not have a built-in website builder, while its Call-in SSD functionality is available for VPS plan subscribers only.
Another demerit concerns the pricing aspect. The thing is that Scala Hosting offers affordable start up rates. There are two types of hosting subscriptions to choose from. Their cost starts at $2.95/mo. As you see, the entry price is quite cheap, letting you test the entire feature set. The terms/tools/services included in each plan are quality enough to cater to diverse hosting needs. Thus, the final choice should depend on individual requirements of website owners.
6. GreenGeeks – Secure and Eco-Friendly Hosting for Beginners
| Product Name: | GreenGeeks |
| Official Website: | https://www.greengeeks.com/ |
| Launched: | 2008 |
| Websites managed: | - |
| Test Plan: | No |
| Cheapest Plan: | $2.95/mo |
| Refund: | 30 days |
GreenGeeks is a secure and eco-friendly hosting for beginners created to match up with various platforms, including popular CMS. Since the date of its foundation in 2006, the platform has distinguished itself as the leading green energy web host. What does this mean?
GreenGeeks is the only environmentally friendly hosting provider, offering the so-called“ green hosting”. For this very reason, the company has been recognized as an EPA Green Power Partner. They purchase wind energy credits to save the energy used by their servers from the power grid.
Actually, the amount of energy they purchase is thrice higher than that used by their data centers. Additionally, the company uses only energy-efficient hardware to host website data. Their servers are housed in data centers created to be green energy-friendly. This is a unique approach ever practiced by hosting providers.
Apart from eco-friendliness, GreenGeeks has other notable advantages. They offer several types of hosting, including shared, WordPress, VPS and reseller hosting. Each package comes with a scalable CPU, Cloudflare CDN for enhanced speed, SEO and security, built-in website builder with multiple designs, eCommerce functionality, rich amount of disk space, unlimited data transfer options etc. Whatever subscription you choose, the software allows upgrading to VPS or WordPress hosting as your website develops.
As to demerits, GreenGeeks doesn’t have many of them. The software currently does not offer 24/7 phone customer support. It also does not refund setup cost and domain fees, although they have a 30-day money back guarantee for all premium plans.
The hosting provider now has three subscriptions to upgrade to. The most cost-effective solution is the Lite Plan, the price of which constitutes $2.95/mo. Pro and Premium Plans cost $4.95 and $8.95 per month correspondingly.
7. Domain.com – The Highest Ranked Website Host for Your Nonprofit
| Product Name: | Domain.com |
| Official Website: | https://www.domain.com/ |
| Launched: | 1998 |
| Websites Powered: | 1.2 million |
| Test Plan: | No |
| Cheapest Plan: | $3.75/month |
| Refund: | No |
Domain.com is a dependable website hosting provider which completes our review of the most appropriate options for nonprofit organizations. While not being the cheapest option in the market, we can still recommend Domain.com as an amazing service that delivers good value for the money you are ready to pay. Even though the company doesn’t offer any discounted prices at present, the plans cost much cheaper than those of most other services. Aside from the cheap pricing, the company has several other eye-catching benefits. These are the premium performance given a 99.9% uptime guarantee, unlimited storage, free SSL encryption, and scalable bandwidth.
What we reviewed as a downside is the lack of monthly billing. Opting for Domain.com, you have to pay for at least 12 months ahead, get no trial period, and can’t request a refund since it doesn’t offer any. Nevertheless, this shouldn’t frighten you as Domain.com has been ranked as one of the most reliable hosting providers in the market.
The Shared hosting plans by Domain.com are perhaps the best option for a nonprofit organization. At the price of only up to $13.75 per month, you get provided with unmetered storage, MySQL databases, FTP logins, and websites, as well as a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt and a free domain registration for one year. The Ultra plan is the richest in features and serves as a robust hosting pan for websites with heavy traffic. If your charity website has little traffic, yet, you can choose the introductory Basic plan ($3.75 per month) or the Deluxe plan ($6.75 per month) while always having an option to upgrade it when the organization’s funds rise.
8. SiteGround – Ultrafast Hosting for Your Project Needs
| Product Name: | SiteGround |
| Official Website: | siteground.com |
| Launched: | 2004 |
| Websites Powered: | 190,658 |
| Test Plan: | No |
| Cheapest plan: | $3.99/mo |
| Refund: | 30 days |
SiteGround – is a modern and ultrafast hosting for your project needs, which offers a broad range of features included in its dedicated and cloud hosting packages. The software stands out from the crowd due to its solid-state drives, several data centers located worldwide on three continents, knowledgeable and qualified support team and 99.9% uptime guarantee rates. There is also an advanced SuperCacher tool applied to deliver the best website load speed and opportunity to use shared servers to ensure safe account isolation.
The hosting provider also offers automated WordPress plugin updates, scalability and utmost control over server performance, VIP assistance and high quality hardware. These and other features contribute to increased server speed and functionality. With SiteGround, you can choose and integrate third-party extensions based on your project requirements. These include DevKinsta, Desktop.com, Trackonomics and more.
Speaking about disadvantages associated with SiteGround use, they include limited storage space that ranges between 10 and 30GB with regard to the plan chosen and high renewal costs. To get access to Managed hosting tools and features, you need to upgrade to advanced GoGeek or GrowBig subscriptions. This may be too expensive for users in the long run.
SiteGround offers several types of plans that differ in terms, integrated feature set and available tools. Based on your project requirements, you may choose from Web Hosting, WordPress, Reseller, Cloud and WooCommerce hosting subscriptions. Plans can be bought for 1, 12, 24 and 36 months, which will also affect their price. If you decide to opt for WooCommerce, Web and WordPress hosting, the cost of plans will start at $3.99 per month. Subscriptions for Managed Cloud hosting start at $100 per month, while the cost of Reseller plans starts at $6.69 per month. Free trial is unavailable here but there is an opportunity to get a 30-day money refund for any plan chosen.
9. KnownHost – Customizable US-Based Hosting Provider for Any Skill Level
| Product Name: | KnownHost |
| Official Website: | knownhost.com |
| Launched: | 2006 |
| Websites Powered: | - |
| Test Plan: | No |
| Cheapest plan: | $3.47/mo |
| Refund: | 30 days |
KnownHost – is a customizable US-based hosting provider for any skill level, which works great for small and medium businesses. The software has distinguished itself due to enhanced backup and security solutions, trusted and versatile customer support, responsive on-site server admin panel, powerful hardware for advanced performance and a wide range of hosting-related services and products.
The host also offers free website migration, installation and free backup solutions, extra DDOS protection, 99.9% uptime rates along with versatile cloud-based options, availability of data centers in various countries worldwide and affordable pricing that meets any project requirements and user needs.
KnownHost demerits are not quite numerous, but they exist. The company does not offer any other website-related services except for hosting. Likewise, there are no advanced security offerings such as managed firewall, cPanel is unavailable here as well. Additionally, the system charges extra fees for lots of add-ons and tools, while plan renewal prices are higher than entry ones.
When it comes to the pricing policy, KnownHost offers different types of subscriptions with regard to the hosting chosen. This includes individual subscriptions for managed VPS hosting, virtual cloud hosting, dedicated servers and WordPress hosting. The price tags start at $3.47/mo for the cheapest subscription to reach $175.20 for the most expensive offer. However, the company offers a 30-day money-back guarantee to those users who are not satisfied with the terms of selected plans for some reason.
10. DreamHost – Secure and Full-Featured Web Hosting for Newbies
| Product Name: | DreamHost |
| Official Website: | dreamhost.com |
| Launched: | 1996 |
| Websites managed: | 633,564 |
| Test Plan: | No |
| Cheapest plan: | $2.95/mo |
| Refund: | - |
Dreamhost – is a secure and full-featured web hosting for newbies, which boasts quite a long history and has much to offer to its customers. The company makes it possible to choose from several types of plans for shared, VPS, WordPress and dedicated hosting. The services and tools available in stock here guarantee fast and secure website performance for high search engine ranking.
With DreamHost, you have an opportunity to register a domain name or even several of them, get access to personalized email hosting services and advanced security features that can ensure the utmost project protection. What’s important, the software comes with the built-in website builder. Its intuitive drag-and-drop interface simplifies the process of website creation and customization that does not require any coding awareness at all.
Just like any other hosting provider, DreamHost has a number of negative issues that may affect user’s decision to choose the company. It does not use cPanel, which may be inconvenient for customers who are used to working with this popular control panel interface. The company offers Linux-based hosting only, while its support options are currently limited to email and live chat.
When it tackles the pricing aspect, DreamHost offers three types of subscriptions, namely Shared, DreamPress, VPS plans as well as dedicated servers. Each package targets a certain audience and includes a predefined toolset/features. The cost of the cheapest subscription currently constitutes $2.95/mo.
11. WebHostingPad – All-Inclusive Website Hosting for Beginners and Web Design Pros
| Product Name: | WebHostingPad |
| Official Website: | webhostingpad.com |
| Launched: | 2005 |
| Websites Powered: | 54,650 |
| Test Plan: | No |
| Cheapest plan: | $4.49/mo |
| Refund: | 30 days |
WebHostingPad – is an all-inclusive website hosting for beginners and web design pros that is known for its reputability, fast servers, advanced SSL encryption available for free here and opportunity to get an unlimited number of domains. The system offers a range of hosting plans to accommodate the needs of diverse user categories.
WebHostingPad uses the industry-standard and user-friendly cPanel control panel, which allows customers to easily manage their websites and hosting accounts. Free website migration is also available here to users willing to switch to the software servers from other hosting providers. Other advantages of the system include 1-click WordPress installation, integrated eCommerce functionality, versatile database support, opportunity to get a professional email, integrated website builder and extra add-ons.
Along with advantages, WebHostingPad has a list of demerits. These include limited support options (email and live chat are currently available here), limited amount of bandwidth and disk storage space for cheap plans, high renewal costs and inability to get a free domain name even on high-priced plans.
WebHostingPad pricing differs with regard to the plan chosen. The software has several types of subscriptions for shared (all-inclusive) hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS and dedicated servers. The most affordable subscription will cost you $1.99/mo, while the most expensive plan constitutes $119.88 per month billed annually.
Final Thoughts
The choice of a website hosting provider for a nonprofit is a responsible task since you not only have to pay for it out of the organization’s funds, but it will also influence the functioning of the site. There is a wide range of features and specifications to consider before making the final decisions. For an ordinary site holder with no developer skills, the task appears a little overwhelming.
Relying solely on grants and donations means you have to think twice before spending a penny on anything. Due to such restrictions, as well as comparatively modest expectations unlike businesses that aim for aggressive growth, your nonprofit organization should choose more affordable hosting solutions. All the website providers reviewed in this article have been proven secure and applicable for nonprofits. They offer affordable pricing paired with excellent performance thanks to the wide array of features and multiple plan options.
All of them offer site-building platforms with premium marketing features that can be used to the benefit of your nonprofit organization. For instance, IONOS offers some of the most robust features to set up and run a successful marketing campaign. HostGator and Bluehost lead the list thanks to being the most dependable services. Web.com has standout development tools while Domain.com and Scala Hosting are effective services ranked high by users worldwide. What unites them all is the perfect blend of affordable pricing and security.
